Myth busted: Vaccinations are not immunizations

There is only one kind of immunity and that is natural immunity which is achieved by battling the infectious diseases itself. Vaccination is merely the artificial triggering of temporary responses to manmade pathogens. Vaccines are both harmful and dangerous and are…

Super bug breakthrough — manuka honey may reverse antibiotic resistance

(NaturalNews) In less than a week, three different research studies have been released about antibiotic-resistant super bugs. Two were issued as nothing less than dire warnings. For example, as NaturalNews covered earlier, UK scientists are calling for the “urgent need for global action” due to the discovery of a spreading phenomenon — a gene that is turning bacteria into not just super bugs but SUPER superbugs. On the heels of that report, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has just sounded the alarm that an impending “health care disaster” is looming unless Big Pharma can find new drugs to combat deadly antibiotic-resistant super bugs. Tired of all this bad news? Keep reading. Because amid all this gloom-and-doom about the threat of deadly super bugs comes yet another study from a third group of scientists that reaches a new and hopeful conclusion. It turns out these researchers have found a way to battle life-threatening super bugs naturally with manuka honey. In fact, manuka honey could be an efficient way to clear chronically infected wounds and could even reverse super bug bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Those are the results of a report just presented at the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Conference in Harrogate in the UK. Professor Rose Cooper from the University of Wales Institute Cardiff is investigating how manuka honey interacts with three types of bacteria that commonly infest wounds: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Group A Streptococci and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). She and her research team have discovered that honey can interfere with the growth of these bacteria in a multitude of ways. And that makes honey a strong option for the treatment of drug-resistant wound infections. The idea that honey has antimicrobial properties is nothing new. In fact, traditional therapies containing honey were used in the topical treatment of wounds by numerous ancient civilizations. Professor Cooper is particularly interested in the super bug-fighting potential of manuka honey, which comes from nectar collected by honey bees foraging on the manuka tree in New Zealand. Although manuka honey is found in modern wound-care products sold around the world, the anti-infection properties of the honey have not been used much by mainstream medicine. According to a press statement, Professor Cooper’s group believes this is because the mechanisms of the honey’s germ zapping action haven’t been known. So they are working to document just how manuka honey halts wound-infecting bacteria, including super bugs, on a molecular level. “Our findings with streptococci and pseudomonads suggest that manuka honey can hamper the attachment of bacteria to tissues which is an essential step in the initiation of acute infections. Inhibiting attachment also blocks the formation of biofilms, which can protect bacteria from antibiotics and allow them to cause persistent infections,” explained Professor Cooper in a media statement. “Other work in our lab has shown that honey can make MRSA more sensitive to antibiotics such as oxacillin — effectively reversing antibiotic resistance. This indicates that existing antibiotics may be more effective against drug-resistant infections if used in combination with manuka honey.” The researchers believe their findings may increase the clinical use of manuka honey as doctors are faced with the threat of diminishingly effective systemic antibiotics now used to try and control wound infections. “We need innovative and effective ways of controlling wound infections that are unlikely to contribute to increased antimicrobial resistance,” said Professor Cooper. “The use of a topical agent (manuka honey) to eradicate bacteria from wounds is potentially cheaper and may well improve antibiotic therapy in the future. This will help reduce the transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria from colonized wounds to susceptible patients.” For more information: http://www.sgm.ac.uk/news/ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/idso-laf040711.php http://www.naturalnews.com/032004_superbug_bacteria.html

Natural bioflavonoids kill hepatitis C virus

(NaturalNews) Hepatitis C is an infectious disease of the liver that can cause miserable symptoms including fatigue, lack of appetite, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Caused by a virus, hepatitis C affects about 200 million people worldwide. In the U.S. alone, one to two percent of the population is infected. Not only can this infectious disease cause scarring of the liver, cirrhosis, and eventually liver failure, but a significant number of people with hepatitis C also develop sometimes fatal liver disease or cancer. Mainstream medicine uses two drugs, usually prescribed together, to treat hepatitis C: interferon and ribavirin. Unfortunately, the side effects to this combination are often so horrendous (ranging from severe fatigue, constant flu-type symptoms and nausea to birth defects) that a lot of hepatitis C sufferers can’t stick with the therapy. What’s more, for those who do manage to keep taking the interferon/ribavirin treatment, only about half get a positive response. But a new study just released shows that nature seems to be able to do what Big Pharma can’t — kill the virus without damaging cells in the body. Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have discovered that two plant-derived bioflavonoids, catechin and naringenin, display powerful antiviral activity on tissue culture infected with hepatitis C. Dr. Samuel Wheeler French Jr., MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UCLA and researcher at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, presented the findings in an American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) symposium on “Pathobiology of Liver Injury and Fibrosis” at the national Experimental Biology 2011 conference, which is currently underway in Washington, D.C. A liver pathologist, Dr. Wheeler previously found that another plant-derived bioflavonoid, quercetin used by many people as a nutritional supplement, can help stop production of the hepatitis C virus without any cell toxicity. Dr. French and his research team’s next step is to test catechin and naringenin on patients with a Phase I clinical trial. “We now have several new compounds we can test to see if they reduce virus infection,” Dr. French said in a press statement. “The positive thing about this family of compounds is that they are non-toxic, and can be taken at high doses. Bioflavonoids represent a very promising therapy with very few side effects that could help millions of people.” For more information: http://experimentalbiology.org/

Healthcare workers to be fired if they refuse flu shots, medical group demands (opinion)

(NaturalNews) Forget the U.S. Constitution. Forget basic human rights. Forget the fact that research shows flu shots don’t work most of the time (http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_vaccines_junk_science.html). A group of the nation’s leading infectious disease experts are demanding forced vaccinations for all healthcare workers. That’s no exaggeration, either. A position paper just released by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) calls for mandatory flu vaccine for all healthcare personnel. And if you work in the healthcare field and refuse? SHEA, which is organization of epidemiologists and infectious disease physicians, says you should be fired from your job or, if you are applying for one, denied employment. The paper, published in this month’s Infection Control and Healthcare Epidemiology journal and endorsed by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), specifically demands that influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel should be a condition of both initial and continued employment in healthcare facilities. In fact, according the SHEA paper, it doesn’t matter whether a healthcare professional has direct patient contact — or even whether he or she is directly employed by a healthcare facility — they should be forced to have a flu shot to have a job. Bottom line: even if you telecommute and do paperwork from afar, it appears SHEA wants you to be forced to have a flu shot if your work in anyway involves healthcare. The SHEA policy also applies to students, volunteers, and contract workers. The only healthcare workers who would be let off the hook and allowed to escape having a forced flu vaccination, say the epidemiologists and infectious disease physicians, are those who can prove the shot is medically contraindicated. “Mandatory vaccination is the cornerstone to a comprehensive program designed to prevent the spread of influenza,” said Neil Fishman, MD, president of SHEA, in his statement to the media. “Healthcare providers are ethically obligated to take measures proven to keep patients from acquiring influenza in healthcare settings.” Of course, a lot of people would argue there’s nothing ethical about forcing healthcare workers, even those not in contact with patients, to have flu shots in order to have a job. SHEA’s demands may be greeted with defiance from many healthcare workers. According to a RAND Corporation survey last year, 39 percent of healthcare professionals stated they had no intention of getting vaccinated despite the media hysteria and push for flu shots centered around H1N1 in 2009. For more information: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/656558

Vitamin D is essential for activating immune system function

(NaturalNews) Researchers have discovered that vitamin D plays a crucial role in activating the immune system’s ability to recognize and fight pathogens. While scientists have long known that vitamin D plays a critical role in bone health, recent research has begun to suggest that it also serves to regulate the immune system, helping prevent infection, cancer and autoimmune disorders. Until now, the mechanism by which the vitamin acts on the immune system has been unknown. In a study published in the journal Nature Immunology , researchers from the University of Copenhagen found that when a variety of white blood cells known as a T-cell comes across a pathogen in the bloodstream, it extends a receptor in search of vitamin D. If it encounters the vitamin, the T cell becomes “activated.” If there is not enough vitamin D in the blood, the cell remains passive and no immune response occurs. The body produces vitamin D upon exposure to sunlight. It can also be found in eggs, fatty fish, fortified milk and in supplement form. Once activated, a T-cell transforms into one of two kinds of cells. One type seeks out and destroys all traces of the infectious agent, while the other records information about the pathogen and transmits it to other parts of the immune system. These latter (“helper”) cells help the immune system respond quickly should infection with a similar pathogen occur at a later date. In addition to providing new information about the importance of vitamin D, the study provides hope for better understanding — and perhaps prevention — of the unhelpful immune responses that result in autoimmune disorders like allergies or Type 1 diabetes, as well as those that cause the body to reject transplanted organs. The researchers were able to determine what chemical steps occur to transform a T-cell from active to inactive, suggesting the possibility that doctors may eventually be able to initiate or block this process, depending on the patient’s need. Sources for this story include: http://news.ku.dk/all_news/2010/2010.3/d_vitamin/; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1256149/Sunshine-play-vital-role-in.html.

Sweating in the summer heat promotes good health

(NaturalNews) Summertime heat is an annoyance to some people, but according to Xu Qian, director of the infectious diseases department at the China-Japan Frienship Hospital in Beijing, sweating from the hot, summer heat is a natural part of keeping your body healthy, and avoiding this heat can actually cause health problems. People typically run their air conditioners throughout the summertime in order to beat the heat, but doing so can actually compromise the immune system. “People should go with the rules of nature. Summer is the time to sweat. It’s a natural process for the body to respond to the outside environment, and adjust itself through the constricting of blood vessels and nerves. In this sense, air conditioning is a reactive restrain of the body against nature,” Qian explained in a China Daily article. Excessive sweating without replenishing the body with water, electrolytes and healthy salt, can be a bad thing, but not sweating at all can be even worse. And moving from hot areas to cold areas, and vice versa, on a regular basis throughout the summer can put excessive strain on a person’s health “Air conditioning might induce infection of the upper respiratory tract, cause colds, throat pain, pharyngitis, and even pneumonia,” said Qian. Sweating is also an important method by which the skin helps to eliminate toxins from the body. “One of [the skin's] functions is to eliminate a portion of the body’s toxic waste products through sweating,” explains Phyllis A. Balch, CNC, in her book Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs and Food Supplements . Sources for this story include: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2010-07/21/content_11029566.htm http://www.naturalpedia.com/S/Sweating-skin.html